THE House of Representatives Public Accounts Committee has postponed its scheduled hearing into alleged financial irregularities at the Petroleum Training Institute (PTI)
The hearing, initially set for Tuesday, April 29, was expected to feature appearances by the Principal/Chief Executive Officer of PTI, Samuel Onoji, and the Director of Finance, Aliyu Mafindi.
The officials were summoned in connection with findings by The International Centre for Investigative Reporting (ICIR), which exposed how over N200 million was allegedly siphoned from the institution between 2018 and 2024.
The committee said the PTI requested an extension of the appearance date to May 12, but did not state the reasons cited by the Institute.
Chairman of the committee, Bamidele Salam, confirmed the postponement, saying the panel was reviewing its calendar to accommodate the new date.
“They proposed May 12th, but we will check our calendar,” Salam told The ICIR.
He added that while the committee was open to ensuring a fair hearing, the gravity of the allegations necessitated thorough scrutiny.
The ICIR reported that the PTI’s Director of Finance, Aliyu Mafindi, used fictitious oversight visits by National Assembly committees as justification to divert millions of naira into personal and proxy accounts. The lawmakers later confirmed that some of the visits never took place.
The ICIR reports that oversight visits by the National Assembly to government agencies are a routine. The visits often come with financial provisions for logistics, accommodation, and honoraria. The Petroleum Training Institute, like other agencies, regularly receives official letters from lawmakers planning oversight visits.
Documents obtained by The ICIR revealed that large sums, including N21.85 million, N15.5 million, and N25.76 million between 2018 and 2024, were disbursed by the PTI for oversight visits that never took place.
Payment vouchers showed that the funds were paid directly into Mafindi’s accounts in violation of Nigeria’s Public Sector Financial Regulation Act, which criminalises such actions.
Despite an internal probe by the PTI’s Anti-Corruption and Transparency Unit (ACTU) at the end of his initial tenure in 2021, Mafindi was reappointed in 2023.
The fraudulent activities continued into 2024, with the reappointment of Mafindi and Onoji’s emergence as the principal of the Institute.
In March and April 2024, N25.8 million and N43.4 million, respectively, were disbursed through proxies for supposed visits by the House Public Accounts and Public Procurement Committees, visits which lawmakers later confirmed never took place.
When contacted, the Chairman, House of Representatives Public Accounts Committee, Bamidele Salam, denied any visits by the committee to the Institute since 2023.
Usman Mustapha is a solution journalist with International Centre for Investigative Reporting. You can easily reach him via: umustapha@icirnigeria.com. He tweets @UsmanMustapha_M